Football: NFL players teach lessons to local players

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There’s no NFL team in Los Angeles, but there’s lots of NFL players who grew up in Los Angeles, and three of them _ Brian Price (Crenshaw), Brandon Mebane (Crenshaw) and Akeem Ayers (Verbum Dei) _ held a free camp for linemen on Saturday at Crenshaw High, offering lessons and guidance to an attentive audience of more than 200 high school and middle school athletes.

Ayers, who played his college ball at UCLA and is a linebacker with the Tennessee Titans, said he wanted to ‘stress the importance of school’ and to let the high school players know ‘it’s not going to be easy’ to get to college or the NFL.

Tyler Tousant, a 13-year-old eighth-grader who brought along his 11-year-old brother, C.J., said, ‘It’s great fun.’

He learned about nutrition, techniques for rushing the quarterback and received some early SAT guidance.

Tousant said he asked a question to the NFL players.

‘I asked, ‘How does it feel to be an NFL player?’’ he said. ‘They said they’re doing what they love to do and hope they can keep doing it.’

-- Eric Sondheimer